[3830] NAQP RTTY AK9F(@WB9Z) Single Op LP

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                    North American QSO Party, RTTY

Call: AK9F
Operator(s): AK9F
Station: WB9Z

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: IL
Operating Time (hrs): 10

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   80:  156    44
   40:  128    40
   20:   91    25
   15:   49     9
   10:    3     1
-------------------
Total:  427   119  Total Score = 50,813

Club: Society of Midwest Contesters

Team: SMC #1 The Marks

Comments:

I operated this contest with my own RTTY rig and equipment, but using the
excellent antenna systems of Jerry, WB9Z.  This turned out to one of the wilder
contests I’ve ever participated in.  Things started out normally, but a couple
hours into the contest, we were hit by a major weather front, complete with an
ice storm, horizontal sleet and rain, and winds gusting to 40 MPH.  All the
antennas were quickly covered with nearly a half inch of radial ice, and the
VSWR on all antennas soared.  The directivity of the beams pretty much went out
the window and tuning was required on all bands just to keep the radio from
shutting down.  All beams were locked in position and rotating them was out of
the question.  The noise of the wind was incredible for hours and the
electrical service flickered many times, and though many of the neighbors were
out of power, we never lost it at Jerry’s QTH.  If it had, his 25 KW
emergency generator would have kept things going.

Then around 8 PM local time, the temperature started to rise and large pieces
of ice started falling off the many towers and beams at WB9Z.  Propelled by the
high winds, the chunks of ice sounded like rifle shots when they slammed into
the metal siding of the building.

It was hard to judge band conditions because it was very difficult here in the
Midwest to copy the weaker signals through the wall of QRN.  The storm stirred
up large doses of wind and rain static, plus plenty of thunder crashes which
kept the S meter jumping all the time.  I apologize to the number of stations
that called but were impossible to get clean print and log because of the
racket.  

In spite of the unique weather situation, it was a great pleasure to be able to
use this outstanding contest station, and as always, the WB9Z hospitality was
fantastic.


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